Winner of the 2006 Shimada Prize from the Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C., and the Metropolitan Center for Far Eastern Art
Studies, Kyoto, Japan Winner of the 2006 John Whitney Hall Book
Prize from the Association for Asian Studies Chikubushima, a sacred
island north of the ancient capital of Kyoto, attracted the
attention of Japan's rulers in the Momoyama period (1568-1615) and
became a repository of their art, including a lavishly decorated
building dedicated to the worship of Benzaiten. In this meticulous
and lucid study, Andrew Watsky keenly illustrates how private
belief and political ambition influenced artistic production at the
intersection of institutional Buddhism and Shinto during this
tumultuous period of rapid and radical political, social, and
aesthetic changes. He offers substantial conclusions not only about
this specific site, but also, more broadly, about the nature of art
production in Japan and how perceptions of the sacred shaped the
concerns and actions of the secular rulers. The patrons of the
island included the dominant political figures of the time: the
late sixteenth-century ruler Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) who
supported numerous projects at the apogee of his power and his heir
Hideyori (1593-1615), as well as their rival and eventual successor
to national hegemony, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616). After
Hideyoshi's death, the Toyotomi clan struggled to retain their
power and sought new opportunities to position themselves as chief
conduits of divine protection and beneficence for the realm. They
enacted and signified this role by zealous, indefatigable
sponsorship of sacred architecture and its ornament, icons, and
rituals. In the early seventeenth century, the Toyotomi clan
sponsored a major refurbishing of the Benzaiten Hall on
Chikubushima, transporting a highly ornamented structure from Kyoto
to be installed as its core. Enveloped in polychrome paintings by
the Kano workshop (the leading painting studio of the period),
black-and-gold lacquer, gilt metalwork, and pictorial relief wood
carvings, this core is the most complete ensemble of ornament and
architecture surviving from the Momoyama period. Watsky has had
unique access to the island, and many of the images included here
have not previously been published.
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